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Evening with her 1920s Dresses

A free 1920s printable paper doll coloring page with two dresses, three hats and purses.
A free 1920s printable paper doll with fashions. She can be printed and played with.

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So, today’s 1920s printable paper doll was something I drew, because I was a little tired and the great thing about historical paper dolls from time periods I know pretty well is that they aren’t a ton of work. Especially because resources like Good House Keeping can be found online in their complete run. It makes this fun!

Some of you may recall from my Goals of 2022 was more historical paper dolls and more Dolls Du Jour, so I am super psyched that I got to kill two birds with one stone. Metaphorically speaking, I do not condone bird stoning.

This is my 10th historical paper doll for 2022! I reached my goal and it’s only August. It’s only my 6th DDJ paper doll, I still need four more to reach my goal. I like goals.

I digress.

So, today’s 1920s printable paper doll has two gowns designed to fit in with the theme of a 1920s wardrobe. The dress on the left is a blue and cream day dress and the dress on the right is a coral colored evening dress. It’s not really a super formal evening dress- more like something for an evening garden party. You know, if you have a lifestyle where evening garden parties are your thing.

The blue dress was based on this McCall 5120 sewing pattern from 1927. I assume this is a day dress, but I don’t know for certain. It seems to be more casual daywear. That’s a guess based on other dresses I’ve seen. Her clutch was based on this one, but I modified it to match the dress better.

The coral colored evening gown is from 1924 and was first published in Good House Keeping from June 1924. The dress is described as a light weight option for summer parties. I am always playing around with how to show transparency in linework. The purse comes from a French design and I made the color match the dress.

The paper dolls underwear was inspired by this combination from the Met Museum. You can see similar styles here and here. These teddies or combinations seem to have been pretty popular given the number that have survived.

Sometimes people ask me if my paper dolls are historically accurate and I wince a little. Not because I can’t tell you my sources (I clearly can, I just did), but because the entire idea of historical accuracy is sort of impossible. We simply don’t know enough about the past and we never will. So much about the clothing a person choses to wear has to do with unwritten rules that people conform to in society.

I have no idea how an actual woman from the 1920s would feel about these dresses and I never will. That’s impossible. As a result, I have no idea how accurate anything I draw really is. All I can do is tell you where I found my sources and what decisions I made.

And I hope you enjoy these little expeditions into historical clothing as much as I do.

1890s Dress Up Time with Pearl

I couldn’t be more excited to share my second Jewels and Gemstones paper doll to have some 1890s dress up fun. A few weeks ago, I share Lapis with her At Home and bicycle outfits. Today, we have Pearl with her walking suit and tea gown. These paper dolls can, of course, share outfits.

While I was researching this era, I kept seeing floral patterned corsets. So, those inspired me. This pale blue one from the Chicago History Museum and this black one from Augusta Auctions. Drawers that inspired the paper doll’s underwear include this set, this set, and this combination set. All shoes come from Harpers Bazaar, but not from an online source. I used one of my fashion plate reprint books.

An 1890s dress up paper doll coloring page with two historical dresses, period underwear, hats and shoes. Fun way to learn about clothing history!

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Promenade or Walking costume from the Delineator from 1894. The actual illustration is here. One thing you see a lot of in the 1890s are tailored suits for women and I am a sucker for a good looking cut away coat. So, that was clearly my favorite.

The tea gown is also from 1894. The dress comes, again, from this plate in the Delineator. Teagowns might look super soft and comfortable, but that’s a lie! They were heavily boned, meaning they weren’t as relaxed as they appear.

An 1890s dress up paper doll in color. She has two historical dresses, period underwear, hats and shoes. Fun way to learn about clothing history!

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The color scheme is more pastel than I used for my Lapis 1890s dress up doll. At first, I was going more sedate with the colors. Then, to my surprise, something about the pale blue corset inspired the spring colors. Now that the paper doll is all colored, I keep thinking of Easter cards. Wrong time of the year, but I’ve never let that stop me before.

I really do recommend looking through Delineator Magazine if you have any fondness for historical fashion. It is a fun read.

Huge shout out to my Patrons, because they chose this era! And because I had a lot more fun illustrating the huge sleeve madness of the mid-1890s than I thought I would. Almost makes me want to draw the 1830s, another era of big-sleeve madness (also hair madness- 1830s hair was bananas.)

1890s Paper Doll to Print with Lapis

My favorite thing about the decade of the 1890s is that short period in the middle of the decade when sleeves become truly absurdly huge. I mean, like sleeves the size of your head. It’s utterly charming and impractical and I love it. So, if I am going to draw an 1890s fashion paper doll, she is going to be the middle of the era.

By the 1890s, there’s a bunch of fashion magazines being published by home sewing pattern companies. The sewing machine has made this a super lucrative field. So, most of these pieces come from the Delineator Magazine which was published by the Butterick Company. One of the reasons I like the Delineator is that their fashion plates were all available for sale as patterns. So they aren’t a dress someone imagines, but one you know people could have actually made.

A printable paper doll coloring page celebrating the 19890s with two historical outfits, shoes, underwear and hats. Super great way to show fashion history to kids.

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The 1890s underwear is a combination with a corset over it. Combinations were a “combination” of pantaloons and a chemise. They went under corsets while on top of them a woman might wear a corset cover and slip or a slip that combined those two garments. V&A has a nice photo.

Lapis, our 1890s fashion paper doll, has two outfits. The first is an At Home Costume based on an illustration from 1896. You can see it on this page of the Delineator. In the 1800s, there’s also a lot of interesting things going on with women’s sporting clothing. Bicycles were super popular in the 1890s thanks to the new “safety bicycle”. There’s many different styles of women’s bicycle clothing from this period, but I chose a Turkish trousers ensemble which comes from the Delineator Magazine in 1894.

A printable paper doll celebrating the 19890s with two historical outfits, shoes, underwear and hats. Super great way to show fashion history to kids.

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Colors are actually pretty vivid in the 1890s. Thanks to chemical dyes, there’s a lot of richness. I was really struck as I poured through museum collections at the number of dark colored corsets I saw. While bright purple seems sort of scandalous, jewel tone corsets really do seem to be a thing from the decade like this purple one and this pink one.

Her At Home Costume I did in pinks and corals. The bicycle outfit I thought would be more practical in blues and browns. After all, it wouldn’t make sense in a world where laundry isn’t easy to be biking around in white or pale blue. I’m sure people did, but I mostly saw brown and blue in my examples.

Anyway, I had fun with this paper doll and I hope others enjoy her as well. If you have a few hours to kill, pouring through Delineator Magazine really is neat. I also want to thank my Patrons, because I don’t think I would have drawn this era if it hadn’t won a poll. I had a lot of fun doing it.

A New 1920s Poppet Printable Paper Doll

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Children’s Fashions 1900-1950 As Pictured in Sears Catalogs
A paper doll of the Poppet series with brown skin, black hair and brown eyes. She has a 1920s set of underwear and two pairs of shoes.Today’s paper doll is a new addition to the 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection. My love of 1920s fashion is pretty well documented on the blog, just check out the 1920s tag.

So, for the last year, I’ve been drawing a lot of 1920s children’s clothing. The late 1920s to the early 1930s are perhaps my favorite era in the 20th century. None of the looks would look decent on me, but I adore them.

So far, I’ve drawn 5 dresses for the Poppet’s paper dolls 1920s Children’s Wardrobe Collection. It seemed high time that I added another new doll to the project. So, now my Louise Brooks clone paper doll has a friend.

Along with her shoes, today’s Poppet paper doll to print has a pair of combinations based on several different sets I’ve seen. I drew her so long ago, that I confess I’m not certain about my sources.

So, this may be a 1920s experience in feel, more than a precise act of historical research.

Anyway, I super hope you enjoy her and I really think she’d pretty cute. I’ve got a few more 1920s pieces drawn before I need to work on more. And there will be more.

Need a some clothing for today’s Poppet paper doll? Pick Out Some Clothing Here.

Poppets Visit the 1860s: Accessory Thursday with Shoes and Underwear

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Guess what day it is?

It’s Accessory Thursday!

The whole point of Accessory Thursday is to allow me to show off some of the smaller pieces that make up a paper doll collection.

For a child’s wardrobe in the 1860s, accessories meant shoes and underwear. Now, kids back in this era wore a lot of underwear, but I decided to focus just on a pantaloons and camisoles. Staybands where also very common. Staybands were like a corset, but they weren’t boned the same way. The idea was to keep the spine straight and help with development.

If you feel that you need a stayband, than check out Promenade & Play which features one from the 1870s.

Shoe-wise, she’s got brown leather boots with a bow detail and some black and white button up boots. I think I just like the idea of two-tone boots. I confess I don’t know how popular they actually were back in the day.

As always, I’d love to know what y’all think of the continuing trend of Accessory Thursdays!

Also, if you love the blog and want to help support it, consider joining my Patreon page.

Promenade and Play: Victorian Paper Doll Clothes for the Poppets

logo-promenade-playSo, life this week has been a roller coaster of sickness and travel, but I promised a second page of clothes for Peach in the Park to expand her Victorian paper doll wardrobe and I am pleased to say that here they are.

In no real order, in this set of paper doll clothes there is a promenade dress or afternoon dress, a gymnastics outfit and a set of underwear consisting of a chemise, drawers and a stayband or corset. She also has a pair of shoes with stockings and a ballgown for her doll. It is entirely possible that the doll’s little ballgown is my favorite piece of the entire set, though drawing that small was a challenge. (Seriously, the doll is like two inches tall in real life. I kid you not.)

I drew these designs based on illustrations from several different Victorian fashion magazines including Harpers Bazaar and La Mode Illustre, which as French. I highly recommend Dover’s excellent books of fashion plate reprints when working on Victorian period fashions- they bring a richness to the process of research that is of great value. Plus it’s fun to draw surrounded by open books (at least, I think it is fun.)

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By the late 1860s, early 1870s, sporting activities were encouraged for children. Gymnastic’s costumes like the one in brown are often shown in magazines along with yachting and skating outfits. While it is hard to imagine a child really running around in the bustled up skirts of the era, it is possible to imagine them doing so in one of these more practical outfits.

I also think it is important to remember that while fashion magazines show perfectly coifed children, actual children’s garments are often more worn and simpler. Kid’s did get out in play even in the 1800s and parents did not dress them like little adults, despite what my fashion history teacher told me. The length of a girl’s skirt indicated her age. The poppets are, in my mind, between the ages of 8 and 11, so their skirts are mid-calve. The skirts would slowly lower until maturity when they would be floor length for many, thought not all, activities.

As a reminder, because I forget this sometimes too- any of the Poppet paper dolls can wear any of the other Poppet paper doll’s clothing. So, while I was thinking of Peach when I made these outfits, they could also be worn by Petunia, Paradisea, Poppy, Posey, Petal, or Primrose.

That is a lot of P names.

Anyway, enjoy the Victorian paper doll outfits.